Just read this. All of it. Very carefully.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Doughy Pantload
Jonah Goldberg is an idiot. Glenn is right that Goldberg's "thinking" is emblematic of the rot that is American "conservatism". What too many Americans fail to realize is that the US Constitution guarantees them certain inalienable rights. The Bill of Rights guarantees you life, liberty and pursuit of happiness free of governmental intrusion. In other words, we are presumed to be free and the government has the burden of establishing cause to interfere in our lives - not the other way around. A US citizen is not required to obtain the government's permission to be free - you are born with it.
I love my country but fear my government.
Oh yeah, the Suns beat the Cavaliers. Go Suns!
I love my country but fear my government.
Oh yeah, the Suns beat the Cavaliers. Go Suns!
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Bush
Glenn Greenwald has a great post about a recent AP poll and other important stuff. He has really been on a tear with respect the whole NSA issue. I left this comment at his site but liked it and changed it to fit my site.
I agree with so much of what he has to say, and has said of late, about Bush and his belief that he has the right, in a time of war, to ignore the law. From talking with those around me, liberal and conservative, most understand that there may be times when the edge of the law is not clearly defined and they will tolerate, or at least give the President the benefit of the doubt, some "aggressive" exercise of the executive function - in a time of war. The issue, here, as I see it, is that most people (at least those that took the AP poll) recognize that we aren't really in a time of war. And, if we are, we certainly aren't acting like it. The mood in the country, the lack of a real enemy (how do you fight an idea), the lack of a Declaration of War and the President's own actions (can you say 365 days of vacation) do not comport with his statements that he only has these extra powers as the commander in chief because we are a country at war. That is not to say that the problem is just that the President has not done an adequate job of convincing us we are at war - as numerous people have pointed out the only thing this President and his Administration is good at is using fear and 9/11 to scare the shit out of us - it is that we know, intuitively, that we are not at war and that the President is only using 9/11, and the alleged War on Terror, to justify his attempt to secure political power for his own use. That is really all that is going on here. We know "The President's NSA Program" is not justified by real, legitimate, genuine, bona fide national security interests (if it was someone by now would have been able to adequately answer Atrios' question how revelation of the program has in any way hurt national security) and that is only really a political program for political purposes. Why? Because FISA already provides for warrantless searches in exigent circumstances. The fact that Bush wants to avoid judicial review by the rubber stamp FISA court is ominous. The fact that the pliant Congress hasn't done an effing thing to stop him even after he promises to continue to break the law and violate the Constitutional rights of US citizens is, well, just plain scary.
I agree with so much of what he has to say, and has said of late, about Bush and his belief that he has the right, in a time of war, to ignore the law. From talking with those around me, liberal and conservative, most understand that there may be times when the edge of the law is not clearly defined and they will tolerate, or at least give the President the benefit of the doubt, some "aggressive" exercise of the executive function - in a time of war. The issue, here, as I see it, is that most people (at least those that took the AP poll) recognize that we aren't really in a time of war. And, if we are, we certainly aren't acting like it. The mood in the country, the lack of a real enemy (how do you fight an idea), the lack of a Declaration of War and the President's own actions (can you say 365 days of vacation) do not comport with his statements that he only has these extra powers as the commander in chief because we are a country at war. That is not to say that the problem is just that the President has not done an adequate job of convincing us we are at war - as numerous people have pointed out the only thing this President and his Administration is good at is using fear and 9/11 to scare the shit out of us - it is that we know, intuitively, that we are not at war and that the President is only using 9/11, and the alleged War on Terror, to justify his attempt to secure political power for his own use. That is really all that is going on here. We know "The President's NSA Program" is not justified by real, legitimate, genuine, bona fide national security interests (if it was someone by now would have been able to adequately answer Atrios' question how revelation of the program has in any way hurt national security) and that is only really a political program for political purposes. Why? Because FISA already provides for warrantless searches in exigent circumstances. The fact that Bush wants to avoid judicial review by the rubber stamp FISA court is ominous. The fact that the pliant Congress hasn't done an effing thing to stop him even after he promises to continue to break the law and violate the Constitutional rights of US citizens is, well, just plain scary.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
More Vacation Blogging
We left the day after Christmas and drove to Albuquerque, NM and stayed there for two days. The earlier post had pictures from the Sandia Peak Tram. There is usually a lot of snow on the mountain but this has been a dry winter. The other pictures are from the aquarium in town. It is first class. The photo that didn't turn out well was of a large tank full of luminescent jellyfish.
We drove to Sante Fe and stayed there overnight and went skiing at Ski Sante Fe. The next day we drove to Taos and went skiing for two days at Angel Fire. It was awesome althought there wasn't as much snow as we would have liked. It was great to get out of the office and breath some fresh mountain air. Denice and I ate at Lambert's in town - such a wonderful place and a great meal. We had a great dinner.
I will get back to regularly scheduled programming, i.e., Bush bashing, soon.
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